When GG Allin’s prolonged and ordurous interrogation of his own existence ended at last in June 1993, when punk rock’s abuser-in-chief finally exited the reeking stage via the trapdoor of an overdose, the informed consensus was . . . well, that’s that then. There would be no musical legacy to speak of, because GG’s music was godawful. Who could take anything from, or do anything with, the rubbishy noise that he made? And as a performer — helmeted in blood, throwing poo-poo, starting riots — he seemed to have taken the frontman-as-health-hazard thing to the limit. Après GG — nothing.

Perhaps that’s why we still talk about him: there’s no school of acolytes to disperse his influence, no clones or knockoffs to adulterate his memory. The new DVD Terror in America: Live 1993 (Music Video Distributors) catches GG on the last tour of his life, giving everyone hell. It’s a gentler viewing experience than last year’s Savage South: Best of 1992 Tour. GG in Terror is fresh from prison, and he looks almost pleased to be back with his band. Dressed for work in boots, jockstrap, rubber gloves, studded collar, and bloodstained lab coat, he measures out the stage with his distinctive lumpy swagger before going predictably berserk. But there’s a little less horror. Lots of bashing himself in the head, yes, and some random swinging at the crowd, but this is standard damage, just GG setting the mood. The abject, essential figure captured in Savage South — naked and raging, daubed in his special palette of blacks and blues and browns and smeared reds — does not materialize.

Once again, though, we ask ourselves: who the hell is this person? What happened? Can anyone explain it? Perhaps Joe Coughlin can. Coughlin — 46 years old, works in a cemetery, resident of South Boston — knows a thing or two about GG Allin. Why, he (almost) wrote the book. In 1992, during a conversation with GG’s brother and bassist Merle, Coughlin was handed a document purporting to be the life story of GG Allin, self-penned. The childhood in the two-room log cabin in Northumberland, New Hampshire, the terrifying father who christened him Jesus Christ Allin (his mother later changed his name to Kevin Michael, but Merle still called him JeJe), the years spent wolfing peanut-butter-and-dog-food sandwiches in Boston rooming houses, the bands, the beatings . . . It all seemed to be there. Coughlin, a non-professional writer, asked to be allowed to work up the manuscript into a full-blown biography, and he sent a 10-page treatment to GG, who was in state prison in Jackson, Mississippi, for a parole violation at the time. “I applied for the job,” he says when we meet on a dark afternoon in Jamaica Plain’s Midway Cafe. “And, uh, I got it.”

Jimmy Reject, 1971-2006 James Harrington, a/k/a Jimmy Reject, former drummer for the shoulda-been-legendary Boston glam/trash punks the Dimestore Haloes, published novelist, passionate rock critic, former ice-cream shop employee, and through-and-through punk rocker, died suddenly last Monday at age 35.

Sweet information! John Hodgman is a very intelligent man. He is also a very strange man. John Hodgman on the 51 States John Hodgman on the paperback release of Areas of My Expertise (YouTube)

Who you callin’ a punk? Jamaica Plain–based freelancer and Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation staffer Steven Lee Beeber was waiting for a plane at the airport a number of years ago when his girlfriend let out a gasp.

Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker Based on the first in a series of popular young-adult novels by Anthony Horowitz, Stormbreaker is James Bond with acne. Watch the trailer for Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker

Deadly art It’s tempting to see two new biographies of Leni Riefenstahl and assume they’ll push the envelope, and expose the dirt about her personal life.

Nirvana revisited True’s book coincides with a bit of Nirvana’s Phoenix lore, and this week we’re publishing an excerpt from the book alongside several related articles from our archives.

Son of Lawrence Sully Erna, Lawrence-born singer for Godsmack, is feeling reflective as he approaches February 7, the date of his 38th birthday and the release of his memoir, The Paths We Choose .

While not a fan per se (“I appreciate it more as pure story”), Coughlin suggests the following as some of the more definitive material by and about Allin. Please note that GG recorded with a number of bands, and much of the stuff has been bootlegged into multiple versions of varying consistency. Buyer beware . . .

GG Allin | Freaks, Faggots, Drunks & Junkies[Awareness, 1988] | “The sound of a soul swirling down the toilet, and apparently having a hell of a time in the process. Extremely depressing, and hard to forget.”

GG Allin & the Southern Baptists | “Look into My Eyes And Hate Me”/“Hotel Clermont”[Railroad, 1993] | “The A-side of this late-period single is a masterpiece of upchuck rage and contempt — that rare sonic elevation of absolute gutter scum into a being of true worth and power.”

GG Allin & the Murder Junkies | Brutality and Bloodshed for All [Alive, 1993] | “His strongest, angriest, and (surprise!) most accessible post-1983 record. Not helped by unfortunate graphics, retarded liner notes by Kim Fowley, or GG’s death just prior to its release.”

GETTING TO KNOW PHILIP LARKIN WITH A NEW EDITION OF HIS POEMS | April 26, 2012 "A smash of glass and a rumble of boots/Electric trains and a ripped-up phonebooth/Paint-spattered walls and the cry of a tomcat/Lights going out, and a kick in the balls." These lines are not by Philip Larkin, of course — they're by Paul Weller.

BLACK SABBATH ARE BACK — IN PRINT AND ON FILM | November 14, 2011 The literature on Black Sabbath — already extensive — will continue to grow, as we try, try, try again to wrap our poor noggins around the irreducibly cosmic fact of this band.